Tom Nield is the man in the middle for Dale’s first game against Hartlepool for almost eight years on Wednesday night.

The Huddersfield-based official is in his fifth season on the National List, yet this is only his third Dale appointment.

Bizarrely, the previous two were both of our fixtures against Accrington in the 2019/20 season, each of which ended in 2-1 wins for Brian Barry-Murphy’s men.

Tom was also due to referee Dale’s home fixture against Bristol Rovers in October 2017, but he was forced to withdraw a couple of days in advance, presumably through.

Wednesday will be Mr Nield’s 19th match of the season and before Saturday, when he was due at Accrington v Fleetwood, Tom had shown 75 yellow cards and one red in the previous 17.

One of those games was Hartlepool’s 3-1 win at Bradford in October.

One final interesting point, Tom made the headlines in the Spring of 2020 when the first lockdown took place, due to his work with the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, as can be read here: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11970748/tom-nield-the-efl-referee

Photo: Action Images

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